mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (02/09/84)
Well, it looks like net.announce is working, at least it's working better than net.general did. The number of sites refusing it due to the 2.10 bug is down to about 2 known sites, and the number not getting it at all is also probably pretty small. If your site is not getting net.announce (there were 5 messages posted Feb 1), you should trace your path upstream to find out how far it's getting. I think it's safe to consider net.announce the most important newsgroup to read on Usenet. As such, I'd like to recommend that each of you move it up to the front of your active file (or as near the front as you deem appropriate). Unless you've taken special action, you probably currently have it near the end. For example, on cbosgd, we have "general" first, then "cb.general", "btl.general", "att.general", "net.announce", "net.general", then cb.all, btl.all, att.all, net.all, and finally the weird stuff like all.test, to.all, control, junk, and test. Also, you should probably arrange that the default subscription list DFTSUB contains net.announce, and possibly the manditory subscription list, ADMSUB. 2.10 comes distributed like this, but you might want to check to be sure everybody is getting it. If you're getting net.announce but not mod.ber, something else is wrong. mod.ber contains summaries of some of the high volume newsgroups, and looks like a winner to me. It allows you to unsubscribe but not miss anything good that comes along. If you don't get mod.ber, check that you treat "mod" just like "net" in your sys file, and check upstream as well - have them check their sys file and see if they get it. By the way, I have a report from one site that many of their users have unsubscribed to net.announce because they don't like the monthly repeated messages. I consider this a serious problem. Is this happening elsewhere? (It is possible to U from even an ADMSUB newsgroup.) One possible way to deal with this is to create a net.announce.newuser, to which the monthly stuff is posted, so people can unsubscribe from it without losing nonrepeated announcements. Another is to gimmick the software to always consider you subscribed to net.announce. Comments are welcome. Mark